February 2011

Every winter, so many people are ill with colds and flu. They are unable to concentrate well, often with that disconnected feeling of not being a part of the world. There have been a host of unwelcome viruses this season and few offices seem to have escaped their reach. So, how can you boost your immune system to help keep these illnesses at bay?

Rights of equality for all members of our society is one of the most fundamental tenets of our legal system. The protection of minorities and the more vulnerable members of the community has been an issue that has been held dear by the previous Labour Government and now the coalition. With this in mind, the new Equality Act 2010 was enacted and the majority of the provisions under this statute came into effect from 1 October 2010.

When managing or coaching others, it can be an anxious time if you have to confront them with either a performance or a behaviour issue. But either you deal with it or it will deal with you. So here are the top ten tips to help you:

Do you sometimes end up doing tasks that others should be doing, leaving yourself less time to focus on your own priorities? If a member of your team comes to you with a query or a problem, do you hear yourself saying, ‘Leave it with me’ or ‘I’ll get back to you’, even if the other person is actually responsible for getting the task done?

Wills are not usually the subject of polite conversation, but they are rarely out of the news. Typically, wills become newsworthy only when things have gone terribly wrong. On this occasion, however, there is a positive reason why wills are being discussed across the nation, namely a new series on television, ‘Can’t Take It With You’. The programme aims to increase people’s awareness and highlight some of the emotional and financial pitfalls of wills and inheritance law.

The United Kingdom was once covered in forests. As time passed, most forest was felled. It was used for everything from constructing what are now great cities to building the ships that helped expand the British Empire.

It has been interesting to see how a certain area of family law has been pushed to the forefront of our attention lately: namely, the recognition of prenuptial agreements between married couples and civil partners in our legal system. Or perhaps, in the case of English law, we should be saying that the agreements are not actually recognised, at least automatically.

In recent times, I have read with rapt attention scores of articles on the title mania sweeping across professions today. Whilst many are feeling very uncomfortable being addressed as Secretaries, Legal Secretaries or Personal Assistants, many have since changed their job titles to Executive Assistant, Legal Assistant, Administrative Assistant, Corporate Assistant, Administrative Executive, etc.